Update 9-20-11

Hi,

First, some catch-up notes from the week before last.

Linda Cohen Greenseid had written Zelda White Nichols, "I have never heard of someone who seems to have lived in more places than you.  Are you in the witness protection program, or is your husband in the service, or are you looking for paradise?  Clue me in, and -- if you have found paradise -- please let me know that, too."
    Zelda answers:  For Linda Cohen Greenseid -- Laugh out loud.  No witness protection:  I moved to Boston after high school and lived there for six years.  Then, a friend convinced me to move to New London, Connecticut.  I did, and that’s where I met my husband, Dave -- our 40th anniversary was on September 15th.  He was in the Navyin Connecticut.  When he was discharged, he found a job with a company that moved us from Connecticut to Orchard Park, New York.  That's just south of Buffalo.  Two years later, we were transferred to Stanhope, New Jersey, and six months after that, it was back to Massachusetts, where we lived in Haverhill for twenty-one years.  Finally, tired of winters, we moved to the mountains east of San Diego, California, but six years later, after being in three major fires, we got tired of that and moved back east, to North Carolina.  Finally, we have found our bit of heaven, and I have my dream of having a house on a lake.     
    Cost of living here, compared to most areas in the United States, is very inexpensive, thanks to there being no jobs.  Unemployment is, unfortunately, over 11% because all the furniture manufacturers have moved to China. We live in farm country.  If we want fine dining experiences or better shopping and entertainment, we have to drive forty minutes to a larger city.  But that’s OK because we used to drive that distance to work every day.  I’m retired but Dave has his own company and works out of the house.  We are blessed, and he is doing very well.  Last year, my mom passed away, and I didn’t trust Wall Street or banking with my inheritance, so we bought two beach rental properties in Garden City Beach, South Carolina.  Why South Carolina and not North Carolina?  Because of the shape of the coastline -- South Carolina doesn't get half as many hurricanes as North Carolina.  Irene proved our theory to be correct.  We went to the beach the day Irene came in, and the sun was out in the afternoon over our beach houses.
    Life has been very good to us here, for which I am very thankful.  It makes up for less happy times in California, especially during and after the fires.  I would also like to mention that what really makes our part of North Carolina a piece of heaven is the people.  I have never met such warm and caring people before.  We have made some wonderful friendships all over, but it is the people that keep us here, and this is where we hope we will always be.

About Hurricane Irene, from Ed and Ginny Schmidt in East Hampton, New York:  We lost electricity and water for six days, but our neighbor still had electricity, so we ran an extension cord over and had one light in the basement and a refrigerator.  Another friend said to attach a hose to his faucet and to our outside faucet, and we would have water.  And that worked, too, so we weren't in the worst shape.
    As usual, regards to all.

Also two weeks ago, Jean Cohen Oklan wrote:  As my nana would have said, "Puh, puh!"  I'm not sure what that means, but it's some type of superstitious "puh-ing."  Maybe Barbara Blitfield Pech knows.
    And Barbara replied:  Now that you mention it, "Poo, poo, poo" has never been clearly defined, at least, not yet.  It is a superstitious phrase that one must say to ward off the evil eye and all things following good verses bad luck, with the hope that the devil and anything or anyone from the underworld doesn't challenge or change your good fortune.  I am sure that there is a  similar crossculture statement or sign in every ethnic background or country of family origin.  Off hand, I can think of crossed fingers, tying a red ribbon on a baby carriage, wearing the little red "pepper" looking charm, or wearing the Hebrew letter Chai, the 18th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which means "life."  I'm open to any other explanations, and look forward to another lively discussion.  As long as you don't get 13 responses, we're good to go."

[Rich -- My mother, perhaps following her mother, though ironically, mutters "Bad rice... bad rice," supposedly after the old Chinese peasant/farmers, trying to fool their vengeful gods.]

On Facebook, Booker Gibson wrote Barbara Blitfield Pech:  Hello, Barbara.  You seem to be able to find anybody, and I'm trying to relocate Margaret Aries, possibly from the class of '65?  We used to write e-mail to each fairly often but lost touch.  I hope she and her family are doing all right.  And you, too, Barbara.

Barbara passed Booker's question on here, first writing Booker:  Joan Aires graduated with me in the class of '65 and is a Facebook friend.  I can ask her if Margaret is a relative.  I'll also write to Rich for the weekly update and see if anyone else knows where Margaret is.  And warmest regards to you.

Finally, in response to last week's September 11th newsletter, Zelda wrote:  Bless you for repeating that original 2001 posting.  Little did we know just how devastating 9/11 was at the time, and it changed our lives forever.
    Living in San Diego at the time, my office was across from the FBI building and half a mile from MCAS Miramar, where Top Gun was filmed.  We had to shut down for the day, since San Diego was such a prime target city, and we were afraid the FBI building would be bombed.  It was after that that I learned all about preparedness, and I've been on a soap box ever since.  San Diego having three military bases, an active military harbor, and an energy plant was prime, and everyone was always on high alert.  Consequently, I found it a very stressful place to live.  We were expecting some sort of germ warfare, with dirty bombs at any minute, so were prepared as to what to do.  That did save us a few years later, when the Cedar Fire broke out, so it was good training. 
    As for our class coming together again:  I think we wanted to reconnect, to remember more innocent times, and the newsletter was an escape of sorts, for a few minutes every Tuesday morning.  Now, for me, it is a reconfirmation that life goes on.  We may not see each other all that often, but it’s wonderful to see the advances we have all made in our lives and not letting 9/11 stop us in our tracks.  It has certainly brought many of us together, there is a lot of history here, and it’s wonderful to connect with people going back to grade school.  Ellen Epstein Silver was wonderful in helping with my recent cataract surgery, and Janice Williams Teeweu had contacted me again -- we were so close back then.  By the way, Janice, if you read this, I misplaced your phone number when you called a few weeks ago while I was at the beach.  You called my cell phone, but your number unfortunately did not come up for me to call back.  We will be going away again on September 17th, but please call me back, because I really want to speak with you.


The South '65 e-mail address list: reunionclass65 . blogspot . com

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Rich